Political Pressure groups

Question 1

Intro

Answer 1

Historians argue that democracy in Britain grew as a result of popular agitation of Political Pressure Groups.

Question 2

Knowledge 1

Answer 2

Pressure groups helped to draw the attention of the government to the lack of democratic rights suffered by the working classes in the mid 19th century. For example, the National Reform League was established in 1865 to campaign for the secret ballot, universal manhood suffrage and a fairer distribution of seats.

Question 3

Analysis 1

Answer 3

This contributed to Britain becoming more democratic because the National Reform League attracted widespread support (65,000 members by 1867) from the working classes putting pressure on the government to respond to their calls for democratisation.

Question 4

Knowledge 2

Answer 4

Furthermore, the Labour Moevement was a significant group that supported Keir Hardie in his election campaign to parliament in 1900. They campaigned for MPs to be payed.

Question 5

Analysis 2

Answer 5

This contributed to Britain becoming more democratic because from within parliament, the Labour Party was in a position to put internal pressure on the Liberal government to pass reforms which were beneficial to the working classes such as the 1911, Parliament Act which introduced MPs pay.

Question 6

Counter Analysis

Answer 6

However, some historians argued that the reforms of the 1867 Reform Act created changes that went beyond what leaders of the reform groups wanted, suggesting that there were other contributory factors influencing the government at the time.

Question 7

Evaluation

Answer 7

To evaluate, whilst political pressure groups can be seen as an important factor in the growth in democracy in Britain, it is clear that without the support of the working classes drawn to the newly evolved urban industrialised areas, the effectiveness of such pressure groups would be limited. However, the Suffragettes for example who were dominated by middle class women, developed many opponents due to their militant tactics. This decreased their popularity and made many feel that reform for women’s voting shouldn’t be passed. This limited the support of pressure groups, as well as the fact that industrialisation and urbanisation brought communities together to form these groups proves that industrialisation and urbanisation was the most important reason as this environment provided a fertile breeding ground for the growth of political pressure groups.